For some strange algorithm of social media, my social media feeds have recently shown old photographs of my old home town at Christmas. This has generated lots of different comments of people reminiscing how Christmas used to be. Life seems so very different now or maybe I’m looking through rose tinted glasses.

With Christmas rapidly approaching, there are many who will get caught up in all the busyness and preparations, others will prefer a quieter, simpler Christmas and some will find Christmas a really hard time for lots of different reasons.

I’ve been mulling over a chapter of a book that I’m currently reading and, with some poetic licence, the writer has explored what Joseph may have felt that very first Christmas - Mary giving birth in less than ideal circumstances and away from home. The writer wonders whether Joseph ever questioned God or doubted His plan when things unfolded as they did and probably very differently to what Joseph was expecting.

I wonder whether we have found ourselves in situations that aren’t what we expected or that don’t make sense to us. I wonder what questions you may have asked of God? I don’t think that the Bethlehem sky was the first, or the last, to hear the pleadings of a heart. Along Joseph’s journey, from the moment of discovering Mary was expecting, the Angel visiting him, Jesus’ birth, the escape to Egypt and as Jesus grew up, he would have had questions and doubts. But he trusted and obeyed.

Perhaps one of his questions in all that happened was, ‘Are you still with me God?’ From my own personal experience the answer would be ‘yes I am right there with you.’ In all the messiness of life and in the darkest of times, God is there.

By the time that you read this, we will be in Advent. Advent - a time of waiting and preparation for Jesus, the Light in the darkness. Throughout Advent at St James we have a ‘When Christmas Hurts Tree’. Through December, it gradually fills with baubles that people hang on the tree to represent loved ones that they are missing or situations that make celebrating Christmas harder this year. As a church we pray throughout December for what the baubles represent and we also have a When Christmas Hurts service (Saturday 21st December 3pm) which is a quieter more reflective way of celebrating Christmas. A time to step away from the busyness and hustle and bustle and to just be.

However you celebrate Christmas this year, remember that the good news of Christmas is that even when the world or our circumstances change – the message of Christmas is timeless. Because Christmas is about the birth of Jesus, Immanuel meaning God with Us. It’s about how He came to give us love, hope and joy. And that message doesn't change from year to year.

Blessings for a peaceful Christmas,

Rev Vikki

Please see the dates section for the December and Christmas services and events.